Hacking Life

June 27, 2010

About a month back, there was an announcement that a group at the J. Craig Venter Institute at Rockville, MD had succeeded in their efforts to chemically synthesize the genome of a simple microorganism. The project was alternately reported in the press as “synthetic life” or “creating life”. What the team did was [...]

In the Buburbs

June 20, 2010

Kudos today to Laura DeLind and Laura Anderson. Yesterday’s open house celebrated the opening of Urbandale Farm. The farm is located in Lansing’s Urbandale neighborhood. The farm’s produce will be sold at a farm stand on the premises, primarily to Urbandale residents (who will receive a discount). It will be operated by volunteers [...]

Wet Spring

June 13, 2010

They say it’s been a wet spring in Michigan. According to the Charlotte Observer a wet spring means more snakes. That does kind of match my mood. I’m of a mind to see snakes everywhere: in the pool, in the bathtub, and especially on all those planes I’ve been riding for the last [...]

Food in Bloom

June 6, 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Bloomington, IN farmer’s market. It’s considered to be one of the big success stories. The permanent facility consists of three or four covered awnings, each about thirty yards long and able to accommodate 10 or 12 vendors with plenty of room to spare. The awnings themselves were [...]